Nature-based solutions for sustainable food systems

Abstract

Nature-based solutions are promising options for more sustainable food production. They are designed to be holistic, addressing a range of societal challenges, from food security to climate change mitigation and adaptation, to economic and social development.

In the years ahead, risks related to climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss, as well as changing consumer preferences and policies, could expose food producers to greater and greater risks. Crop yields and profits could decline at the same time as expectations for more sustainable food production rise.

In many parts of the world, ecosystems are already heavily degraded or are being degraded rapidly. In Switzerland, drained organic soils continue to be farmed intensively, all the while degrading, subsiding, and emitting large quantities of greenhouse gases. In recent decades, the Amazon Rainforest in Peru has been deforested at an annual rate of 534km2 per year (1), on average, equivalent to 3% of the area of Switzerland per year. With the loss of forest comes the loss of valuable ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, water purification, and habitat provision.

Nature-based solutions can help in both cases. In Switzerland, paludiculture could be used to rewet and thereby protect organic soils while keeping them in production, if at lower levels. In Peru, agroforestry could be scaled up to restore degraded tropical forest, minimize deforestation, and support local livelihoods. Realizing the potential of these nature-based solutions will require overcoming barriers and creating enablers, particularly in relation to transition financing, production subsidies, and conflicting needs, interests, and capabilities of stakeholders.